Sunday, 27 October 2013

Problems in life and Bhagawad gita

Problem by nature are never ending. You solve one problem with lot of effort and thought and then in no time a unseen problem emerges and you work hard to solve that problem and this vicious cycle ends only when you die.

Solving problems in life is not going to make life any better. So instead of solving problem it would be much wiser to live with the problems and be able to see happiness even in these troubles.

This problem is not new. Though i realised only recently. Many great men had thought about and have given discourse at length on how to handle this situation. God Krishna in his famous discourse called bhagawad gita talks about all this to warrior Arjuna. Bhagawad gita is awesome for (though i haven't completed reading it yet) many reasons. One , i thought it would something out of this world conversation. But to my pleasant surprise, i found that arjuna talks about the real problems the commonly encountered humans. Arjuna in his conversation completely reflects my thoughts. Considering the ages it is old, i am surprised to see we are still solving the same problem. Technology has taken us no where. I feel like we are busy running at the same place.

Krishna has talks about 2 ways in specific order to come out of problems. One, do your duty to your best, without expecting it results and also without the thought that you did it, rather it was done through you with the help of so many people. This should not be interpreted as no ownership, but at the fact that world functions via interdependence. The 2nd way can be started only if you are successful in the 1st way above. which is devotion to god. Devotion to god means you are so god loving that other worldly things like money, fame, etc no longer interest you and only God interest you. You see god in everything and no longer differences matter to you as everybody are equal in your eyes as all are forms of god.

The first part i described is called karma yoga and part of first and whole second forms what is called bhakti yoga.

Some fools who wanted to make money have equated yoga to a form of physical exercises. But as far as i know in bhakthi yoga does not prescribe you any physical exercises. I am not a authority on this subject, but i know one thing for sure, yoga is not equal to exercise but much beyond that.